 Poster: A snowHead
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Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of taking children out of school, if I was to take my 8 year old daughter skiing a couple of weeks before Easter, would she be one of only a few 7/8/9 year olds skiing or do lots of families go in March?
Due to a mahoosive cock-up arranging holiday time at work combined with other family commitments I may not be able to go at Easter as planned, and so I'm looking at going the weekend of 16/17 March instead. Being with other similar age children adds a lot to the holiday for my daughter (she's an only child); I don't want her to end up the only "older" child around and surrounded by loads of pre school age kids.
Any experience would be welcome.
Thanks.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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mgrolf, we took Ellie out of school when she was 4, for the week before Christmas, there were quite a lot of older children there as well. I am taking Ellie out of school again the week after Easter this year (she is 6 and in yr 2).
Edit to say I meant week after Easter school hols.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Tue 26-02-13 23:06; edited 1 time in total
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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mgrolf, Loads of kids that age its a French holiday
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the French holidays end on 16th March, when many French families will be driving home. Why not ring one of the family operators such as Esprit or ski Whizz etc and ask them what kind of parties they have booked in?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I think I mean Snowbizz, sorry. 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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pam w, I'll be picking up the phone tomorrow morning (all being well). Does 16th being the end of French school holidays mean that transfers into resorts will be horrendous that weekend, or is it all over and done with by then?
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With esprit all the people there will have young kids. Give them a try
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Based on our experiences in January, the answer is lots of families do this.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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pam w, Loads of French families are there that week trying to avoid all the kids and high prices paradoxically with all their English counterparts reciprocating.
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yes, that's a busy week because it's the first after the holidays are over and usually a very good week to ski. But still better than the previous week. mgrolf, it will be a busy day for transfers - probably in both directions. Whether it's "horrendous" or not depends on luck, and weather. You will, of course, be hoping for plenty of fresh snow.  A sun/sun holiday would be a good bet, if you can find one, especially as it gives you the final Saturday transfer day.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We will be taking our 8 year old daughter to Val d'Isere with Esprit that week.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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We skiied the last week of January one year and there were french children in my children's ESF group but no english kids.. this didn't bother my children. They care more whether they have children of their own sex to ski with irrespective of whether they are french or english. This was in Les Saisies which doesn't tend to have many English families anyway.
I think the week you are thinking of would be ideal in terms of good snow cover but not french holidays - excellent skiing on quiet slopes!. If not go the week after and you will find more English kids as some of the private schools are off from around 23rd March.
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We skied Les Arcs one January outside of school holidays, we found that the grouped lessons were of a much wider age range and ability of child as they appeared to have made up the classes from those they had booked. Having more able children at that time we found that they weren't stretched and got a bit bored as a result. After that we decided that private lessons for them at any time were the way forwards and now book an instructor between them for a couple of hours twice in the week. It is amazing how this frees up family and general skiing time for the adults as you are not at the behest of always having to be in a certain place at a certain time to pick up and drop off on every day.
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cran
cran
Guest
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| mgrolf wrote: |
| Does 16th being the end of French school holidays mean that transfers into resorts will be horrendous that weekend, or is it all over and done with by then? |
The traffic will be busy going out of the resorts, so queues down the mountain and at motorway tolls in that direction, but going in to the resorts should be fine.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Quote: |
going in to the resorts should be fine.
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but still busy - probably the busiest "out of school holiday" week of the year. But if the OP is on a package holiday they'll be at the mercy of the TO for a transfer anyway. For a self-driving family it would still make sense to try not to be driving up to the resort during the busiest hours.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Yes. We take out 9 yr old out every year.
The head teacher, although not condoning what we do actually agrees that kids get more out of an outdoor adventure than (and the following are his words not mine) "sat in a boring math lesson"
I personally don't think a week out here or there will do any damage whatsoever. My dad though the opposite when I was sitting my GCSE's and left me at home for a week to study while they went skiing.
Seriously, who's going to study when their parents are away?
Grades didn't suffer either.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Too many we want to get away from them.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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As a 16 year old most of my holidays have being out of school . A week here and there dont do anything . If your child is willing to learn then they will learn regardless of if the have had a week off its not bad at all . I went mexico in may / june and still passed and got 10 gsces so my learning wasnt effected by going on holiday in school time. He prices are robbery for half term and it makes you realise you can go on two holidays for the price of one in half term
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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In answer to the question, "to bloody many" 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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adie, +1
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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we took our kids out of school when they were 11 and 14 to go to Whistler about 10 years ago....nearly half the price then.
other times we had to go in term time, but as we booked a year in advance we always got the free child places, so costs we not too high.
obvious other benefit of going out of holidays was un-crowded piste...many times it was stupid busy (sarre Chevalier was manic)
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On the subject of the main topic - I'd say at that time there will be loads of kids about for your children to ski with, plus children are great at breaching language barriers etc. It'll be fine. On the other side of the discussion...
I'm personally of the opinion that involvement in outdoor activities, especially those such as skiing which are innately adventurous is really beneficial for kids. The education system as it is doesn't cater too well for the variety of learning types that are out there, and if my school experience is anything to go by, kids can quickly get disillusioned with long theoretical lessons. If you enjoy skiing and your kids enjoy skiing, then take them out there and have a blast. It'll do them good and they'll most likely perform better for the break from school - or they'll get hooked and spend the rest of their lives skiing, which I think we can all agree is a good thing
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